Resumetips

My friend, Don Goodman, from Resume Wizards recently gave me his personal 18-point checklist for creating a good resume. As I read through it, all the bad resumes I've ever read came flashing back to me.
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A publisher sent me a book on resume writing the other day. As I was paging through it, I realized something: it's been years since I've sent anyone a resume. During that time, a dozen clients have come and gone, but no one asks for a chronological list of my work history. Which is good, because I don't really...
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For many, spring is a time of career renewal. Maybe it's the weather; maybe it's the fact that many people have just received their payout for last year's bonus and they are now ready to make a move. Whatever the reason, many people decide to spring clean their resume this time of year and embark on a job...
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Several AOL readers have written in to ask what to leave off of a resume. While every job seeker is unique, here are some general items I recommend leaving off of your resume to achieve optimal results.
1. Objectives
Most hiring managers I talk to are not interested in reading resume objectives....
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As an older job seeker, writing a resume can bring an additional set of challenges. It can be hard to know what to include and what to leave out of the document when you have had a long work history, and it may have been years since the last time you even needed a resume. Resume etiquette has changed, and it...
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Hundreds of readers have sent AOL Jobs their resumes asking to be rescued. Combing through the resumes, I see job seekers making similar mistakes when crafting their documents. Here are three representative resumes with common errors in writing strategy and design. Are you making any of these mistakes?
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Years ago, when résumés were still sent to employers by mail, job seekers hoped things like a high-quality paper stock and unique, professional formatting would catch the eye of an employer. These days, things are a little different.
First of all, it's rare that employers even accept paper...
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An AOL reader asks, "I am currently a stay-at-home mom, but I want to start back at work as soon as possible. I'm intimidated when it comes to submitting a resume, because I don't have much work experience. I have been home for two years with my son. What do I put on my resume to explain this gap in work?"
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Ever wonder how you can prevent your business card or resume from winding up in the slush pile? Well, Brian Spindel, president and COO of PostNet (as well as a frequent panelist at International Franchise Association conferences and conventions), may just have the answer for you. It's not easy making yourself...
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Would you go to see a movie if the movie trailer was boring or buy a book if the information on the book jacket was dull? Probably not. Yet when people craft their resumes, they generally introduce their candidacy with a summary statement that is so unmemorable and generic that it looks like hundreds of others...
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Corbis
An AOL reader asks: What are keywords and why do I need them on my resume?
We've all searched for something online by typing in a word or phrase that closely resembles the type of information we are looking for. We find information and make decisions about products and services via these types...
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When it comes to resumes, longer is rarely better. In today's fast-paced world, hiring managers generally spend less than 15 seconds looking at a resume. They want to be able to see your key differentiators quickly, and they will rarely look past page two to find the information they need. So how do you keep...
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If you think video resumes are a good idea, check out Dave's Awesome Video Resume, the first in the "Don't Be Dave" series of videos on how NOT to conduct a successful job search. This hilarious spoof on video resumes, courtesy of Pongo Resume, features fictitious job seeker Dave Hetherington, who makes every...
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Mike O'Brien, Climber.com
Most job seekers are satisfied with a resume that does a "good" job positioning them and presenting their skills and experience. But according to national online recruiting expert Climber.com, "good" isn't enough in today's tight job market-particularly at the leadership level....
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Bulleted lists are often used on resumes to highlight specific talking points and areas of achievement. But too frequently bullets are misused, and they end up diminishing the impact of the talking points rather than enhancing them. Here are a few common mistakes candidates make when using bullet points on...
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Recently, someone showed me a resume and asked for a critique. The resume had absolutely no chronology; no company names, position titles, or dates of employment. It simply grouped work experience into categories with no reference to where this experience occurred. When I asked her why this information was...
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I review a lot of resumes. And most of them have at least one of four major problems related to content, style, and form. Does your resume fall into one or more of these categories? If so, it may be time to perform a checkup on your resume to improve the overall health of your job-search campaign.
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Readers had so much fun with our recent article Resume Mistakes That Keep Hiring Managers Amused But Cost You the Interview, that we decided to do a sequel. These blunders are courtesy of Robert Half International's Resumania.
"SKILLS: Committed to meeting deadline."
Just one?
"HOBBIES: Michael...
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In today's competitive job market, small errors, omissions, and lapses in sound judgment can cost a job seeker an interview or a job offer. I turned to hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals to hear about the bad interview and resume mistakes some candidates make when searching for employment.
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Every day I talk to people who are concerned about putting their full employment or graduation dates on their resume. The concern is that by showing a full chronology or revealing a graduation date, hiring managers will "do the math" and figure out how old you are. Once they have this information, they may...
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Just in case you haven't heard it enough: It's tough to get a job these days. So tough, in fact, that it's not unlikely for a job seeker to spend six months or longer looking for a job before actually getting one. Although it's common for today's job search to take a while, there are ways to increase your...
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According to employment experts at My Job Group, a network of regional job sites in the United Kingdom, résumés written by job seekers who are actively involved on Twitter were better written and more likely to land on an employer's short list. After analyzing 500 resumes, they found that...
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Most job seekers I meet have some sort of "special circumstance" or blemish on their resume that they feel makes them unattractive to a hiring manager. For some, it's accounting for the dot-com they worked for that went bust after nine months or the year they took off from work to care for an aging parent or...
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Someone reached out to me today, frustrated that he had applied to multiple job postings with limited results. When this occurs, the knee-jerk reaction is to blame the resume for the lack of responses, but the résumé is only effective if you have a strong search strategy to accompany the...
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Duncan Mathison, co-author of "Unlock the Hidden Job Market: Six Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough," recalls working with an ex-Navy SEAL who was trying to land a civilian job.
"He realized that most people thought his skills consisted of landing on beaches and blowing things up....
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Sometimes an old outfit can look new and fresh by adding a new shirt, tie, scarf, or pin. With just one item the look can be transformed quickly without spending a lot of time or money.
Most résumés I read could benefit from a similar transformation. They contain the basics, but they just...
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I came across Emurse long before it became an AOL service and was impressed with it from Day One. Emurse is a simple concept with an easy purpose. Mix the letters of e-m-u-r-s-e up and you get "resume." Quite simply, it is your online resume. Here are 10 things you should know about having your resume online...
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Many of my clients ask me if I think it is a good idea to use white fonting on their resume. White fonting is the practice of attempting to manipulate the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that many companies use to sort through mountains of resumes by placing keywords (the words that describe the applicant's...
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When it comes to the topic of how to write a résumé, people seem to have an endless supply of questions. And since your resume may be one of the most important documents you ever have to write, it makes sense that people would want to know as much as possible about the topic. Below are resume...
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When hiring managers read resumes, one of the first things they look at is dates of employment. If they see multiple short employment stints, they will often assume that you are a job hopper, question your ability to stay at one company for long, and move on to the next candidate.
Often people's choppy...
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